| Common snipe numbers in North America are unknown, in part, because no survey technique to monitor their numbers has been developed. I developed and evaluated three indices to abundance (point count, call count, and winnow count) to monitor snipe trends. I identified six factors (season, time of day, lunar cycle, solar radiation, wind speed, and temperature) that effect snipe behavior and considered their effects when evaluating the indices. From my evaluation, I identified the point count to be the best of the three.I identified four habitat characteristics [soil moisture, water depth, distance to nearest shrub cover, presence and dominance of herbaceous plants (sedges)] that were important for snipe and evaluated the BBS for snipe, since doubts about the use of this technique exist. My results suggest the BBS is not a useful technique for monitoring snipe trends.I evaluated four labor intensive techniques (territorial/spot mapping, flush counts, tape playback territorial mapping and nest searches) to estimate numbers of snipe or their territories. Territorial/spot mapping most accurately represented the number of territories present, followed by flush counts, tape playback territorial mapping, and nest searches in that order. |
